I'm sorry--but I've just been involved with the SPCA for too long.
I rarely dream, but as I woke up this morning I was dreaming about the wife of our former mayor (she's a bit of a character anyway--and another SPCA volunteer). Walt and I had been dog sitting for her, a poodle and West Highland Terrier. We were returning them to her house, where she also had a couple of cats. As we got the dogs out of the car, she pointed to a chicken in the yard and said "That's [name--I don't remember what she called her]." Walt turned to me and said "Oh! We took care of [name] when she was just an egg."
Yes. It's time to find a new hobby!!!
I meet a lot of interesting people when I'm writing stories for The Enterprise, almost all of them delightful people. So I was surprised how much I was disliking the person I interviewed last night. I didn't start disliking her until about 10 minutes into the interview, though. We were in a big echo-y room, off in a corner where we could have some privacy. There were several other people there, including two five year old children who ran, shrieked, jumped, stomped, pounded the walls and made the room positively vibrate with noise. I despaired of getting ANYTHING usable on tape and wondered why none of the people was saying anything to the kids, who would have disturbed anybody, not just a reporter trying to tape an interview. Several times I glared over my shoulder at the people who were ignoring the children.
It was about 10 minutes into the interview when the director mentioned, off hand, that the children were hers. Not once did she ask them to quiet down, nor did the grandparents and father who, I learned, were the other people in the room!
For a brief time I really disliked her, but the kids eventually went home and the more we spoke, the more I came to like her and developed a great admiration for what she has accomplished and the obstacles she has had to overcome. It should be a good article, if I can get past the parts of it done with children shrieking.
Surely next time she could tell the kids to shut up!
Walt's mother is apparently not doing well. They have determined that she is not benefiting from the rehabilitation they are giving her in the convalescent hospital and so the facility has no recourse but to send her back to her apartment in the assisted living facility. What this means for her is unclear. Walt hopes to go to Santa Barbara as soon as he gets his jury duty out of the way (he is called for Monday) and we'll know more then.
It does mean, however, that Lester's move to Boston will be delayed until Grandma's condition is more stable.
Regarding Lester, I sent the following message to Jeri and Phil this morning:
Your dog is a pig.
Mealtime is the best 10 seconds of Lester's day.
I give the dogs each a heaping Tbsp of canned dog food mixed with a big scoop of dry. I feed all the little puppies in a cage so they get a chance to actually get some of the food. Then I put down the other 3 bowls, first Lester's, then Lizzie's, then Sheila's.
Lester literally DIVES into her bowl, scattering food everywhere and getting all the wet food. By the time Lizzie's bowl goes down, Lester is there to take over and eats all of Lizzie's food too (Lizzie goes to Lester's bowl to eat the dry food Lester has left more leisurely), then Lester goes to the side of the cage where the little dogs are to see if their food has spilled out through the cage. Sheila is unchallenged as far as her bowl is concerned, but as soon as the dogs finish all the food, Lester makes the rounds of all the bowls, including the little guys', to lick them even cleaner than they were to begin with.
The Royal puppies have their appointment with "the knife" tomorrow and will come back sore and sterile. The person who is going to take them to the vet called me this morning and I was surprised that I was slightly offended by her tone. It had nothing to do with HER. Her job is to pick up dogs from various places and transport them to the vet. She doesn't know the dogs. She was asking me if these dogs got along well or if they needed separate cages, and I replied that they were siblings and got along extremely well.
I think what put me off is that she thinks of them -- as well she should -- as "these dogs" and I think of them as my babies, Harry, William and Princess. I didn't like that they were just lumped together into a group of "these dogs."
Totally silly reaction on my part, I realize.
I spent the day working on my feature article. Most of the time was spent transcribing the interview (a longer than usual process) and the article itself really went together rather easily. It's good when you are working in your own area of expertise and not some avant garde piece of theatre! I was actually able to sit in the family room (covered with puppies, of course) to watch The Daily Show without a guilty conscience.
2 comments:
mingling--
The older I am getting the less tolerable I am with loud children..and rowdy ones...I am a teacher and that may have something to do with it!
You know, I hate to say it, but I agree with you. I'm just hoping that Tom & Laurel don't ever let Bri behave the way I've seen kids, especially in restaurants.
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